Dedicated Route Service
A locked pickup window and a documented route profile — your dock, your contact, your handling requirements, specified once and held on file. The route runs to that profile no matter who is behind the wheel.
Contracted RoutesA dedicated route is a standing commitment: the same pickup window, the same stops, the same handling, on the days you set. Sentinel runs contracted routes across the DFW east corridor from Fate, covering Rockwall, Royse City, Rowlett, Wylie, Forney and Kaufman. What you are contracting for is not a vehicle for an hour. It is a window you can build your own schedule around.
The route profile is the operating instruction for your account: access codes, dock location, the named handoff, the window, and any handling the payload needs. It travels with the route rather than with the driver, so a new driver runs your route exactly as the last one did. If you require a Sentinel-employed courier on every run rather than a vetted partner, we will write that into your agreement.
- Named pickup window
- Route profile retained on file
- Standing instructions documented and held on file
- Consistent service regardless of who is driving
- Window
- Named and contracted
- Route Profile
- Documented, on file
- Sentinel-only Option
- Available by agreement
How a run works
- 1The route conversation
We start with what the route actually has to do: where the stops are, what moves between them, which window matters and which one does not, and what happens on your worst day rather than your average one. That last question is usually where the real constraint is hiding.
- 2The route survey
We drive the route before we quote it. Distance on a map and distance at 4:00pm on a Thursday are two different numbers, and a window priced against the first one gets missed against the second.
- 3The route profile
Everything the route depends on is written down once: stop sequence, dock or entrance location and how to reach it, gate and door codes, the named contact at each stop, the windows, the temperature and packaging each payload requires, and what to do when a stop is closed or a contact is unavailable. The profile is the operating instruction for your account.
- 4Agreement and BAA
The service agreement sets the schedule, the rate and the terms. The BAA is signed before the first live run rather than after it. If you require a Sentinel-employed courier on every run instead of a vetted partner, that goes into the agreement in writing.
- 5Parallel run
Most facilities start us on one route or part of their volume while the incumbent still covers the rest. You watch the signed records for a week or two before you move anything that matters. We would rather earn the remainder of your volume than be handed it.
- 6Steady state
The route runs to the profile. You receive a signed record for every stop, and if anything moves you get a call from us before you get one from your own client.
- 7Review
Routes drift. Volumes change, a stop closes, a window tightens. We revisit the profile with you rather than letting the written version and the real one quietly separate.
What we decline, and why
Turning work down is the part of this that protects a contracted route. A window we accept is a window we hold, so we are deliberate about what we accept.
A contracted route is a promise about your worst day, not your average one. If the window you need cannot survive traffic, a long stop, or a route already running behind, we will say so during the survey and propose one that can. A courier who agrees to your window in the meeting and misses it twice a month has cost you more than the one who said no.
Sentinel runs Monday to Friday, 07:00 to 18:00, across the DFW east corridor. A route needing round-the-clock coverage, or simultaneous pickups in places one vehicle cannot be at once, is a route we are not the right fit for. Contracted clients can arrange time-critical and after-hours work as part of an agreement, but that is a scoped arrangement rather than a standing claim to be available at any hour.
We do not start a contracted route on a handshake. The agreement fixes the schedule and the rate, the BAA covers the handling, and the route profile makes the whole thing repeatable. Beginning without them means the first disagreement gets settled by whoever remembers the conversation differently.
Category A material carries packaging, training and handling requirements outside what Sentinel operates, and that does not change because a route is contracted. We transport Category B under UN3373. If your volume includes a Category A need, you hear it from us during the survey, not on a live route.
Common questions
- Who actually drives our route?
- Sentinel is owner-operated, so routes are run by the owner. Where a route is covered by a vetted partner courier, that courier works under the same documented procedures, signs a BAA, and carries liability coverage naming Sentinel. If you would rather that never happen on your route, say so and a Sentinel-courier-only clause goes into your agreement.
- What happens if you are ill, or a vehicle is down?
- The route profile exists for exactly that day. Every detail the route depends on is written into it, so a covering courier runs your route to the same instruction rather than working it out on arrival. You hear from us the moment we know, with what we are doing about it, and you hear it before your own client does.
- What is actually in a route profile?
- Stop sequence and addresses. Dock or entrance location and how to reach it. Gate, door and alarm codes. The named contact at each stop and who signs when they are away. Pickup and delivery windows. Temperature and packaging requirements by payload type. Escalation instructions, including what to do when a stop is closed, a contact is unavailable, or nothing is waiting. Written once, held on file, and revisited with you when the route changes.
- Can we start with one route instead of all of them?
- Yes, and it is usually the better way to do it. Facilities commonly move a single route or a portion of their volume first and keep the incumbent on the rest, then decide with a few weeks of signed records in front of them. A route you can evaluate is worth more to you than a proposal you have to take on faith.
- How is a dedicated route priced?
- Per route, against distance, stop count, frequency, window and handling requirements. You receive a written figure for your specific route before anything is signed, rather than an hourly rate that moves with traffic. If volume or stop count changes materially, the rate is revisited in writing rather than absorbed quietly on either side.
- What does the service agreement cover?
- Schedule and windows, the rate and how it changes, the handling standard, the documentation you receive, escalation and notification, and whether partner couriers may run your route. The BAA sits alongside it. Terms are negotiated per account rather than issued as a take-it-or-leave-it form, and you get the full document to review before there is any expectation of a signature.
Send us the route and we will price it
Give us the stops, the days, the window, and what moves between them. We will drive the route, come back with a written proposal covering the schedule, the rate and the handling standard, and tell you plainly if the window you need is one we can hold. Use the quote form or email dispatch@sentinelmedicaltransport.net. If we are not the right fit for the route, that will be the first thing we say.
Request a quoteGet Started
Let's talk about your routes.
Tell us what you move and when. You'll hear back the same business day.
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